Ethiopia Won’t Be Pressured into Abandoning Its Right to Utilize Nile Water: Ministry of Water and Energy

Addis Ababa, October 13, 2025 (ENA) -- Ethiopia’s rise is a reality that cannot be reversed despite all the machinations, proxy shenanigans, and ill-conceived attempts of its adversaries, the Ministry of Water and Energy stressed.

Ethiopia's Ministry of Water and Energy issued a statement today on Egypt’s hostile rhetoric against Ethiopia over the Nile River and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

The statement noted that Egypt’s colonial-era mindset has led to the pursuit of a failed and misguided policy of undermining Ethiopia instead of nurturing collaboration.

Ethiopia, which is the source of 85 percent of the Nile River and the origin of the mighty Abbay River, is on the path to prosperity, the statement added, and underlining that Ethiopia will not be pressured or cowed into abandoning its right to utilize the Nile to meet its water needs.

It underscored that Ethiopia’s rise is a reality that cannot be reversed despite all the machinations, proxy shenanigans, and ill-conceived attempts of its adversaries.

Egypt’s skewed interpretation of African solidarity is evident in such statements, the statement further noted, elaborating in this limited view of solidarity, Nile Basin countries are portrayed as are recipients of symbolic Egyptian assistance and to be content with modest initiatives like a water well here and solar panel there.

The full statement is stated as follows:

Egypt has intensified its hostile rhetoric against Ethiopia over the Nile River and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). The latest manifestation of this belligerent approach has been at a gathering routinely used to advance Egypt’s unlawful and hegemonic ambitions over the Nile River basin.

In a high-level speech during this event, Egyptian officials claimed that Egypt has exhibited African solidarity by extending “a helping hand to its brothers in the continent, particularly the Nile Basin countries, by implementing development projects that include: drilling solar-powered groundwater wells [and] establishing rainwater harvesting facilities”.

Egypt’s skewed interpretation of African solidarity is evident in such statements. In this limited view of solidarity, Nile Basin countries are portrayed as are recipients of symbolic Egyptian assistance and to be content with modest initiatives like a water well here and solar panel there.

This outdated and insufficient notion of solidarity no longer aligns with the realities and aspirations of the African continent. Genuine solidarity requires acknowledging the right of all nations and peoples to development. This, in turn, requires recognizing the legitimate right of all riparian countries to utilize the Nile fairly and equitably as a shared resource.

Egypt’s colonial-era mindset has led to the pursuit of a failed and misguided policy of undermining Ethiopia instead of nurturing collaboration. Ethiopia, the source of 85 percent of the Nile River's waters, the origin of the mighty Abbay River is on the path to prosperity.

Ethiopia will not be pressured or cowed into abandoning its right to utilize the Nile to meet its water needs. Ethiopia’s rise is a reality that cannot be reversed despite all the machinations, proxy shenanigans, and ill-conceived attempts of its adversaries.

For decades, Ethiopia and other Nile riparian countries have engaged with Egypt in the search for a transboundary cooperation rooted in international law. Egypt has never negotiated in good faith, both during the trilateral negotiations on the first filling of the dam and the annual operation of the GERD and the negotiations for the Agreement on the Nile River Basin Cooperative Framework (CFA), which is the only basin-wide treaty of the Nile River Basin.

Oblivious to the needs and rights of other riparian states, Egypt continues its efforts to impose its claim of a “historic right” emanating from its self-serving colonial era dealings. Egypt also attempts to reinforce its claim of “historic rights” with numerous illegal, reckless, and water-wasting practices, including out-of-basin water diversion without any consultation with or notification to other riparian states.

Unlike other regional issues where Egypt is the mediator, the belligerent, and the culprit, the Nile portfolio can only get a resolution through direct engagement with the concerned parties. Water security can only mean equitable and reasonable utilization of the Nile River by all riparian states.

The GERD is one of the several projects in the upper riparian countries of the Nile. As Egypt’s fate is intertwined with other African riparian countries of the Nile, the only rational option is for Egypt to deal with other riparian countries on equal terms, in good faith, eschewing the threats, insults, and acts of subversion that have come to characterize the Egyptian approach to dealing with upper riparian countries. 

Egypt’s unguided leap from fabricated claims of drought to another extreme of “flooding” only proves Egypt operates in extremes, unwilling and unable to find a solution centered on mutual interest. 

True to character, Egypt also drags Sudan into its self-fabricated crisis. The truth is, Ethiopia and Sudan maintain effective coordination on the GERD and will continue to translate their brotherly ties to the shared development of their people.

As a country with a long experience of constructing and operating hydroelectric dams, it upholds the highest level of professional standards in the management of its dams, including the GERD.  Ethiopia’s Green Legacy Initiative afforestation drive and its salutary effect on the GERD are lessons Egypt should draw from.

Ethiopia continues to choose diplomatic means and friendly relations with Egypt and has never initiated diplomatic spats or issued unwarranted bellicose statements.